Talk Abstract

Why are so many user interfaces hard to use? Why are user interfaces
difficult to design and implement? What is the Usability Engineering
Process, and how can it help improve user interfaces? Why should
companies employ people trained in user interface design? This talk
will provide a quick overview of the challenges and opportunities in
user interface design and implementation, also called Human-Computer
Interaction. It will conclude with a list of design principles that
should be considered when designing and evaluating user interfaces.

"Only slightly more than 30% of the code
developed in application software development ever gets used as
intended by end-users. The reason for this statistic may be a result
of developers not understanding what their users need."
-- Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt, "Contextual Design: A Customer-Centric
Approach to Systems Design," ACM Interactions, Sep+Oct, 1997, iv.5,
p.
62.